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The "Pilot" is the first episode of the first season and series premiere episode of the American sitcom Young Sheldon. The episode aired on September 25, 2017.

Summary[]

9-year-old Sheldon Cooper is a once-in-a-generation mind capable of advanced mathematics and science but learns that isn't always helpful growing up in East Texas, a land where church and football are king.[1]

Plot[]

Sheldon is playing with his trains in the Cooper House garage, when Mary, his mom, calls him for dinner which ends with Sheldon running to the table in fear that his sister, Missy, will lick his toothbrush (which she had done before). At dinner, Sheldon wears mittens when saying grace. It is mentioned that it is the second-to-last day of summer, and Sheldon is starting school in 2 days.

Notes[]

  • Title Reference: None
  • This episode was watched by 17.21 million people with a rating of 3.8 (adults 18–49).
  • Total viewers including DVR users 22.41 million.
  • Young Sheldon was ranked #4 for the week ending 1 October 2017.
  • This episode aired in Canada on September 25, 2017.

Critics[]

To be entered.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • This episode aired as a special preview of the series after the season 11 premiere episode of The Big Bang Theory.
  • Sheldon and Missy are shown sharing a bedroom in this episode, which contradicts the episode "The Porkchop Indeterminacy" where Missy says that 8 year old Sheldon built a robot to keep her out of his room, implying separate bedrooms earlier on.
  • This is one of a few episodes of Young Sheldon whose title is not a list, similar to how the first episode of the base series (also named Pilot) did not have a scientific-sounding name.
  • This episode explains why Sheldon doesn't have a Texas drawl. In narration, he explains that he switched to a mid-Atlantic accent because "Nobel prize winners ought not be ordering tater tots."
  • The song playing over football practice is "Nothin' But A Good Time" by Poison.
  • This episode does not contain the opening sequence or usual end credits theme. Additionally, the text of the opening credits is larger than usual.
  • Sheldon wears mittens when holding hands to say grace. In the end, he mentions that he never touched his brother's hand until the invention of Purell. Purell was invented in 1988 (a year before the series begins), but was not made available for consumer purchase until 1997.
  • This episode and "Rockets, Communists, and the Dewey Decimal System" are the only episodes to not have Meemaw appear.

Quotes[]

Adult Sheldon: "I've always loved trains. In fact, if my career in theoretical physics hadn't worked out, my backup plan was to become a professional ticket taker. Or hobo. And when I figured out that trains allowed me to prove Newton's first law... An object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force... I felt like Neil Armstrong on the moon, alone and happy."
Mary Cooper: Shelly, dinner's ready!
Adult Sheldon: "I don't care how dimwitted you are. Scientific principles have to make you smile. Of course, nobody I knew in East Texas in 1989 cared about Newtonian physics. The only Newtons they cared about were Wayne and Fig."
Missy Cooper: Sheldon, if you don't get in here, I'm gonna lick your toothbrush.
Sheldon Cooper: Coming!
Adult Sheldon: "That's my sister. And she's done it before."
George Cooper Sr.: Hey, what the hell are you doing out there?
Mary Cooper: George, language.
George Cooper Sr.: What language? So?
Sheldon Cooper: I was exploring dimensional kinematics.
Georgie Cooper: Admit it, he's adopted.
Sheldon Cooper: How can I be adopted when I have a twin sister? Think, monkey, think.
Mary Cooper: That's enough. No one's adopted.
Missy Cooper: I wish I was.
Mary Cooper: That can still be arranged.

Sheldon Cooper: [in church, listening to a sermon about 'evil thoughts', to Missy] Do you have evil thoughts?
Missy Cooper: I'm having one right now.
Sheldon Cooper: Really? What is it?
Missy Cooper: "When we get home, I'm going to kick your little balls."
Sheldon Cooper: Can't. They haven't descended yet
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